By Maggie Scales, Lexington Observer staff
Editor’s Note: This story was shared with The Voice by the Lexington Observer.
Tarik Samman, a 27-year-old Lowell native, first-time politician, and son of Syrian immigrants, is running in the Democratic primary to represent Massachusetts’ 5th Congressional District, which includes Belmont.
Samman, who now lives in Cambridge, is challenging House Minority Whip Katherine Clark. Clark has been in Congress since 2013 and has risen to be one of the most powerful House Democrats.
A researcher and union organizer by trade, Samman hopes to make Massachusetts more affordable by increasing access to housing and healthcare, weighing in on foreign policy, and fighting money from Political Action Committees (PACs) in Washington if elected.
“We need to limit the influence of corporate PACs, super PACs, foreign PACs, we need to fix the way we run our own election and election finances; we need to set a term limit…to make it easier for us to run our own agenda to make life more affordable for Americans,” Samman told the Observer.
Samman’s father immigrated to Massachusetts from Damascus, Syria, in the 1980s to study at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. After college, Samman’s father moved back to Syria, married Samman’s mother, and returned to Massachusetts, where Samman was born in 1998.
Samman is the youngest candidate in the District 5 race — six years younger than Waltham native Jonathan Paz, and 36 years younger than Clark. Samman noted many young candidates have been elected.
“[Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] entered Congress at 29, Maxwell Frost entered when he was 25. Elijah Manley now in Florida — he has a big chance, and he’s younger than me,” Samman said.
After the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Samman and his family moved from Lowell to Damascus because they felt unwelcome and unsafe in the United States. But returning to the Middle East was dangerous in its own way. The Arab Spring ignited the Syrian Civil War while he was living in Damascus. His neighborhood became a place of checkpoints, explosions, and attacks.
“Every single family in Syria faced death, [and] knew a person in prison,” he recalled. “Living through that experience changed my perspective and view on foreign policy and on politics in general.”
His family lost almost everything because of the war and borrowed money to move back to the United States, he said.
Samman finished high school in Texas, went to a community college in California while working full-time, and graduated from the University of California, Irvine, in 2020 with a bachelor’s in social science.
“You bet my first job out of college, in 2020 during the pandemic, was as an Uber driver,” he said.
Samman then went to Columbia University for graduate school, took a job as a research associate at Harvard Law School, and later became an organizer with the Harvard Academic Workers Union.
Samman argued there should be more young people in Congress because younger generations will pay for the debt that older generations created.
“One thing Congress controls that other lower offices don’t control is foreign policy. When it comes to foreign policy, we are in debt because of all the foreign wars that we go into. And when it comes to debt, we are going to pay the bills — it’s our generation that’s going to struggle with it, so we should have a say when it comes to foreign affairs,” he said.
Foreign affairs — specifically, U.S. participation in Middle East conflicts — is an issue Samman is passionate about.
According to Samman, his biography offers him a deep understanding of the nuances of the Middle Eastern conflicts, which would be valuable in Congress.
“The fact that when we talk about the current war with Iran, we don’t talk about the 1950s, how we (the United States) intervened at the time, and how that interference brought the current system into power — it’s ridiculous,” Samman said.
He also believes the U.S. sends too much money to Israel.
“We are not achieving our goals, we are going into debt because of it, and we are not supposed to be killing children overseas,” he said.
Samman spoke at length about the issue of affordability. He thinks Washington should create a plan that’s equal to Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal.
“We should take a bigger step when it comes to healthcare. We should take a bigger step when it comes to childcare and housing,” he said.
Samman believes ICE should be abolished and a new, more humane immigration system should be created. He said workers at some of the local businesses he’s visited during his campaign were afraid to talk to him because of what’s going on with ICE right now.
“That’s the fear atmosphere that ICE brought in,” he said. “It’s unacceptable.”
A future immigration agency should work with local governments, so people have a say in how ICE operates because right now, Samman argued, so many Americans disapprove of ICE’s actions.
“Citizens have made it clear that what ICE is doing is unacceptable…but Trump is not listening,” he said.
Samman is familiar with the fear many people in America are feeling today because of ICE. Since 9/11, he and his family have experienced rampant Islamophobia in the States.
“I heard stories of my grandma and my mom, who are hijabis, getting spat on in the streets of Massachusetts just for being a Muslim,” Samman said.
Samman admires Zohran Mamdani, the mayor of New York, for speaking out against Islamophobia.
As a young candidate, Samman said he always tells young people two things: “First, if you’re not at the table, you’re probably on the menu, and second, we always say the greatest generation in America is the generation that went to Europe to fight fascism…When they did that, their average age was younger than me,” he said. “I think my generation should be the new greatest generation that will fight fascism and dictatorship here at home.”
Samman and Clark are also challenged by Paz, a 33-year-old Waltham native, son of Bolivian immigrants, and avid ICE protester.
